Howdy, I’m Martin Ralya. I’m a proposal writer for a Fortune 100 company by day, and a freelance writer for the RPG industry and GMing blogger by night.
I live in Utah with my amazing wife, Alysia, our beautiful daughter, Lark, and our neurotic beagle, Charlie, in a house full of books, movies, and games.
MartinRalya.com is my online hub — an easy way to check out my published work, get in touch with me, and see what I’m up to on the web.
Web Content
I started gaming in 1987, and I’m passionate about game mastering (GMing). I’ve been writing GMing articles online since 2005, and have written more than 750 to date. Together, my two for-profit websites represent an informal portfolio of my work.
I run Gnome Stew, the most widely read game mastering blog in the world (with around 1,000 daily visitors and 2,900 RSS readers . Along with eight other authors and veteran GMs, I publish new GMing articles on the Stew every month; together, we’ve posted over 550 articles since May 2008. (See all of my articles.)
From 2005 to 2007, I ran and authored Treasure Tables, my first GMing blog. Although I no longer update TT, over 750 GMing articles articles are available in the site’s archives.
Published Work
I’ve been a freelance writer for the RPG industry since 2004, with 24 published credits and roughly 87,000 words in print. I have never missed a deadline.
I’m experienced at writing both rules material and descriptive text, and I’ve worked in a variety of genres and to a wide range of specifications. My work has been published in Dragon Magazine and in products from Goodman Games, Necromancer Games, and Tabletop Adventures, among others.
My work has twice been nominated for a GenCon EN World RPG Award (an ENnie), one of the RPG industry’s most prestigious awards: Bits of the Wilderness: Into the Open (to which I contributed) was nominated for Best Electronic Book in 2006, and Treasure Tables was nominated for Best Fan Site in 2007.
If you’re interested in hiring me for a freelance project, or in seeing a sample of my work, drop me a line. I love to write, and my rates are quite reasonable.
Print Work
My print projects have included writing a section of the game mastering chapter in Twilight 2013, flavor-heavy material for Goodman Games’ DragonMech line, and player-oriented work for Dragon Magazine.
Paizo Publishing
Dragon Magazine #345, “Excursion: Four Ways to Travel the World”
Author, 4,000 words (2006)
Goodman Games
Almanac of the Endless Traders
Contributing author, 10,000 words (2006)
93 Games Studio
Twilight: 2013
Contributing author, 6,000 words (2009)
Necromancer Games
The Mother of All Treasure Tables
Contributing author, 11,000 words (2006)
Tabletop Adventures
Bits of Darkness: Dungeons II
Contributing author, 1,900 words (2006)
Bits of the Boulevard
Contributing author, 2,000 words (2005)
Derelict Starships
Contributing author, 125 words (2009)
E.N. Publishing
EN World Gamer #2, “Sold! A Little System for Selling Magic Items”
Author, 2,000 words (2005)
Open Game Table
Open Game Table: The Anthology of Roleplaying Game Blogs, Volume 1
Contributing author, 700 words
PDF Work
In PDF format, I’ve written ready-to-use setting material for Tabletop Adventures, game mechanics for my book in the E.N. Guilds series, adventure seeds for Expeditious Retreat Press, and more.
Tabletop Adventures
Destinations: Repair Station 7-Osiris
Author, 11,000 words (2006)
Destinations: Charon’s Wall
Author, 4,200 words (2009)
Destinations: Spaceport Black Orchard
Author, 4,400 words (2007)
Destinations: Spaceport Trident Vespa
Author, 4,300 words (2006)
Bits of the Wilderness: Into the Open
Contributing author, 1,500 words (2006)
Bits of the Wilderness: Into the Swamp
Contributing author, 1,000 words (2005)
Bits of the Wilderness: Into the Wildwood
Contributing author, 1,000 words (2005)
E.N. Publishing
E.N. Guilds: Messengers’ Guild
Author, 13,000 words (2006)
Mad Kaiser Games
Nightmarket: Games of Chance
Co-author, 4,800 words (2004)
Alea Publishing Group
Poor Gamer’s Almanac #5, “Three Games of Chance”
Author, 2,000 words (2005)
Expeditious Retreat Press
Seeds: Post-Apocalyptic V
Contributing author, 400 words (2006)
Seeds: Horror IV
Contributing author, 500 words (2005)
Seeds: Pulp IV
Contributing author, 600 words (2005)
Seeds: Horror III
Contributing author, 250 words (2005)
Seeds: Fantasy IV
Contributing author, 250 words (2004)